1. Field of the Invention processing apparatus which executes recording, retrieval and/or communication of image information, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, information processing apparatuses have been put to practice, which execute optical twodimensional scanning of a vast amount of image information such as text with a two-dimensional scanner, store the information on an optical disk, and retrieve and read out any desired image information from the optical disk. This type of information processing apparatus is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. 4,661,988 issued to Shimizu.
With such a processing apparatus, desired text is edited by rotating and/or enlarging or reducing retrieved image information (or some text), or cutting and pasting the information to another text. The edited text is sequentially stored on a recording medium, for example, an optical disk, or is sent to an output device, such as a CRT display or a printer, for visual confirmation.
In this processing apparatus, the left end of an original is defined as the most significant bit, MSB, and every one-byte data is written at it is in a page memory and a recording medium such as an optical disk memory. In reading out stored information from the recording medium, the display, output, transmission, reception, edition, etc. of information is executed without inconsistency by simply treating the MSB as the left end of the original, as per the above data writing process. This means that this information processing apparatus is of a stand-alone and closed type.
There is another type of information processing apparatus which, unlike the above type, defines the left end of an original as the least significant bit, LSB, and stores every one-byte data, as it is, in a page memory and a recording medium such as an optical disk memory. As system composite, networking and systematization are being developed, there is a demand for an open type information processing system which can communicate with the apparatuses of the above specification and an apparatus which uses an optical disk from a different company or a new type of optical disk that is of a different specification.
For communication systems such as a facsimile, the communication standards include transmitting data from its LSB. With the aforementioned apparatus in which the left end of an original is defined as the MSB, however, data is transferred from the MSB even at the time of data communication. In the case where data communication involves different types of apparatuses tha employ different types of bit definitions (MSB and LSB for the left end of an original), therefore, complex data processing is required to ensure the data communication, the bit arrangement of data does not coincide with its address in a bit map memory, and the MSB type apparatus does not conform to the standards of communication systems.
That is, as described above, the prior art information processing apparatuses are of a stand-alone and closed type and are designed in such a way that the left end of an original is defined as the MSB and data is transferred from the MSB even at the time of data communication. In the case where data communication involves MSB and LSB types apparatuses, therefore, complex data processing is required for the data communication, the bit arrangement of data does not coincide with its address in a bit map memory, and the MSB type apparatus does not conform to the standards of communication systems. Further, these prior art apparatuses do not have compatibility with other types of apparatuses, nor do they have expandability to permit connection to various types of communication devices.